The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-02-03
AN ANCIENT SALEM INDUSTRY.
The Process OF Aiaking Hides int
Leather-Operations I'm Detail.

The Process OF Masing Hides int
Z Leather-Operations in Detail.
Years ago tanning was done in tan
yards not under cover, so that the men
swere exposed to the weather, however IN
clement. Now, rough wooden sheds are
erected over tan watts. The time required
to make leather out of raw hides is from
four to six months The hides come TO
SSalem by rail, and now spur tracks take
them to the very door of the tannery.
Some hides from China, which your cor
respondent saw in one shop, were done up
Z in bundles of 100, each weighing about IL
pounds, making bundle of 40 pounds.
These hides measure fourteen or fifteen
eject, while an ordinary American hide
covers an area of seventeen or eighteen
fleet. They were dried and pressed into
bundles and bound with ropes before
shipment. These hides are first put INTO
soak of clear sea water, and remain SIX
or seven days, when they are taken out
I and put into the lime watts filled with lime
water. There they remain from SIX 10
! ten days. They are then taken out and
unhaired and green shaver, the hairs be-
{ ing scraped off on one side and any parti-
Giles of flesh removed from the other side.
The next course is to put the hides into
the drenches and then mill them to soften
them. After being thoroughly rinsed in
clean water, they are "put into the bark, q"
] that is, put into a vat where there IS a
strong liquor made from bark, with
ground bark sprinkled between each
layer. Sixteen days here fit them to be be
brought out and laid away for 30 days,
after which they are split, shaved and
1attened. To split hide does not mean
to split it from one side to the other, but
Al, hi fro
one to two pounds, about in the centre.
This split is eventually curried like other
leather, and is used largely for backs of
shoes. Splitting is done by machinery,
and is q very dangerous business. Every
few weeks the press records smashed
hand or broken arm from the use of this
machine. After splitting, the hide goes
through the bark liquor once more, re-
naming this time but few minutes,
when it is again laid away for thirty days,
at the end of which time 1t is put into the
tan vat and remains ten or twelve days.
This is the end of the tanning process,
and when the hides come out of the bark
liquor this time they go into the curryingI
shop.
Curing is an entirely distinct business
from tanning, and few men who learn one;
part of the business ever know anythiEg'
about the other The manufacturers
mostly run only one business. although
now and then man tans and dnishesi
leather both In the large majority of
cases, one firm takes the hides into itsi
yards and tans them, and another firm
takes them and curries them into leather.
Not all tanners and curriers' own the
hides which they put into leather. Very;
frequently they do the work for other par;
ties.
Tanning leather is a very dirty and IN
!savory business, but probably not I'M
healthy, and those who have worked att
it long time say they are not troubled;
by the smells. But this seems almost in
credible to one who goes among the vatsi
and beam houses for the first time andG
shifts the odors from the old hides, the!
fumes from the tan watts and lime holes
and the general waste and decay.-Salemi
(Mass.) Cor. Boston Herald